Viral marketing and "antimarketing" are all over the web these days. People with a vested intrest or anti-interest in a product are dishonestly touting or negging everywhere. It's all over MMORPG.

I thought about trying CO, but hesitated when I saw all the hate on this board. Gave in and dropped the $50 just to see how they did the much vaunted character generation. Am so glad I wasn't swayed by all the ridiculous hate here, and think this is a great game with tons of potential.

My background, all from launch: AO, Shadowbane, WoW, GW, AOC extensively, many other games tried.

Review:

Launch 10 of 10, the best launch of an MMO I've experienced slightly above GW. Exactly ONE crash in 36 hours of play, no memory leaks whatsoever. It is the first ever MMO I've been able to play for 8 hours straight at launch wthout any crash, bug or glitch. Truly amazing.

Bugs 9 of 10, have experienced only a couple of buggy missions over 100+ completed. Outstanding.

Performance, 10, easy on hardware

Graphics, 8, the zones ive seen so far look great. FYI, I would give AOC a 5 for graphics because of the repetition of graphic elements, even though it's a very "pretty" game, so take my rating with a grain of salt.

Underlying gameset, 9, the way the powers, gear, trades, I rate GW a 10 in underlying rules of character ability usage, and combination of complexity of powers and lack of clutter, and AOC a "1" so adjust your expectations accordingly here. 

GUI, 9, smooth, easy to learn and use. Lots of control without the "screen mess" of wow and other games

Character generation and appearance: 10, the best I've ever seen. One of the hallmark complaints in MMOs is that everyone looks the same. This game sets the standard for character appearance in MMOs going forward, and for that alone it qualifies as "next generation."

Fun factor PvE: 8, same old MMO kill and escort missions or this would have been higher.

Fun factor PvP 10, incredibly well-balanced for a two week old MMO. There will be some tweaks, but the system is solid overall. IMO. this has the chance to be the best PvP MMO since GW and that's saying something. If they could somehow get a player controlled assetsexpansion into this game ala AO Notum Wars or Shadowbane, this could be amazing. Mass PvP in this game could be amazing.

Yesterday I did 8 hours straight of arena PvP without a single crash, lag spike, etc. Had to tear myself away from the comp. The hero powers in PvP are amazing while well-balanced for a startup MMO (some few tweaks needed unlike every other MMO I've played where balance somehow eludes the devs. This game should also prove harder to hack and exploit for PvP than other games.

The bad:

People complain about poor grouping mechanic. Well DUH, name me an early launch MMO where grous are prevalent, WOW certainly wasn't. This game has tons of raiding and group instance potential.

Well I really have nothing bad to say. This is a very solid product with a very solid underlying ruleset.

Final: IMO, this is the best MMO since GW with extreme potential. Compared to utter, miserable failures ala AOC, this game really and truly shines.

Feel free tp disagree, plenty of room for that, viral antimarketing hate spammers please spam elsewhere though. or I'm going to make you look like the idiots you people generally are...

/popcorn

i have enjoyed the game so far. i limit my gameplay so i wont be done leveling my toon within the first month of playing. overall, i like it.

Very much enjoying CO. It has some "forgivable" flaws and needs some balancing still ,etc but over all great game. The only thing I disagree with in the review is best launch. CO had a pretty good launch and crashes were minimal. LOTRO had a better launch though and deifnately holds the #1 spot that i have seen to date.

CO would have had an even better launch if the day one nerf patch had not been put in place.

It is a fun game though and I played through the Monster Island Crisis now which was about the most fun I have had in an MMO so far. It was an absolute blast and I was with a fun group.

The coming content and new power set looks good too. They need to add Growth and Shrinking power set as well since (based on Monster Island) soem of the Mechanics for your hero to become gigantic are in place already.

Hard to take somone serious when they claim "so much viral antimarketing"...

Didn't even bother reading what has to be a very biased review.

Most of the negative stuff I've read is about the plan to charge real cash for performance enhancements at the item shop, in addition to the monthly sub.  Cryptic said that there will be some of this, but that these items will also be available in-game.

What's that look like at this point?  Is the item shop fully operational?  Any performance enhancements available?  If so, can you get them in-game?  If you can, is it part of a fun quest or is just a boring grind that is more likely to get you to go RMT?

This game has "potential" but as it stands now is not a great game. Every launch has bugs and CO is far from any exception as the game is riddled with bugs, From broken missions to actual game mechanics being broke.  However the most glaring problem is the complete lack of content. The zones (what few they have) are very bland and become boring rather quickly. Also the developers have even admitted to the lack of quest after there patch that reduced xp by 40 percent at launch.

The trouble with mmorpg.com is that it's full of MMO haters and people that don't even play or own the game they are bashing. This place is all about venting your frustrations, and nothing more.

Originally posted by tachgb

The trouble with mmorpg.com is that it's full of MMO haters and people that don't even play or own the game they are bashing. This place is all about venting your frustrations, and nothing more.

This dosent make any sense, If they dont own or have never played the game why would they be venting there frustrations about it?

Originally posted by sanskrit

Viral marketing and "antimarketing" are all over the web these days. People with a vested intrest or anti-interest in a product are dishonestly touting or negging everywhere. It's all over MMORPG.

What about the viral promarketing?

It makes more sense for Cryptic to send a few paid posters to the gaming sites to talk up the game than for some other company to hire forum saboteurs to torpedo the game, since Blizzard, NCSoft, SOE don't automatically gain anything from people not playing CO.

great game.  Only crashed once in 3 days but got right back in after 30 mins

Originally posted by rummblebelly

Originally posted by tachgb

The trouble with mmorpg.com is that it's full of MMO haters and people that don't even play or own the game they are bashing. This place is all about venting your frustrations, and nothing more.

 

This dosent make any sense, If they dont own or have never played the game why would they be venting there frustrations about it?

I said fullstop, mmorpg sees alot of people venting their frustration. I said there are people who bash a game they've never played, didn't say they're frustrated with a game they've never played.

Its an odd by product of internet speak that not LOVING a game is all it takes to see you labelled as a venomous hater and conversely speaking positively somehow makes it legitimate to label you a fanbois.... The truth of the matter is more likely that the people throwing these labels about are generally trying to intimidate or apply peer pressure to force through their own subjective view without going to the trouble of actually making their own case or arguing anothers....its certainly not a practice to be encouraged and the worse way to begin a review.

Like any game CO has its merits and its deficiencies, where each lie, and what you personally seek from a game really determines how you percieve it. A review is a subjective opinion on a game, its value to another lies in the trouble it takes to explain its reasoning because that enables someone to assess the reviewers bias and draw some conclusions of their own. 

Thankfully people can and should exert discretion when looking at any form of marketing beit positive (although we have come to accept it in daily life, we should remember it is based upon the principles of exagerating or even misleading to direct the reader - it is somewhat telling that this form of coercian doesnt' ignite the OP's anger) or negative (which the OP is quick to denounce but perhaps is just a case of balance asserting itself.) 

In terms of the future we might see a games larger potential but we have no way of knowing when or even if it will be realised so the only valid comments are to what is actually in place.

At all times keep an open mind, assess anothers opinion by all means, but be wary of the extremes and look for honesty more in what is not said than what is shouted and screamed in your ear.

So is this the "pro-marketing" review? Are you a employee of Cryptic? I mean, I think this is a fine game with lots of potentiial as well. But I am not the 10/10 guy you seem to be.  I mean, 10/10 is perfection. That means that element of the game could not BE any better than it is. Sorry bub, but there's no part of this game I'd give a 10/10.

I give your review 4/10!

Originally posted by rummblebelly

This game has "potential" but as it stands now is not a great game. Every launch has bugs and CO is far from any exception as the game is riddled with bugs, From broken missions to actual game mechanics being broke.  However the most glaring problem is the complete lack of content. The zones (what few they have) are very bland and become boring rather quickly. Also the developers have even admitted to the lack of quest after there patch that reduced xp by 40 percent at launch.

Please list these broken missions because at lvl 25 I've only run into 2 busted public missions and they're both fully functional as of last week.   Also list these broken game mechanics...I've not noticed any...sure there's some unbalanced things but what game doesnt have balance issues?    I've also not noticed this lack of content we're constantlyf inding things in our crime computer, drop quests etc.    The game launched with a minimal set of zones boo hoo..thats what expansions and free content upgrades are for.   I think if theyd' of launched with TOO many zones like say hmm Warhammer the population would of been far to spread out and thus reducing the amount of  fun when you can't complete anything that requires more than 1 person.

The xp reduction was removed by like lets see LAUNCh...and the lack of content is only towards the end levels there's more than enough content pre lvl 30.

Right now I am at about a 7.5/10 based on the current state with a 10/10 based on potential. For me it all depends on how quickly Cryptic can put out more content to fill the XP gaps, and add more grouping content in general. I would also like to see each set get about 3-4 new powers to help make each of them more complete.

Someone may have mentioned this already but it isn't really "viral anti-marketing" it is simply good old fashioned word of mouth. And in this case there are a lot of dissatisfied players so you're hearing a lot of negativity.

Look at the comments of people defending it, when someone's defense to a post of "Lots of broken missions" is "I've only run into 2 broken missions" well that's not really helping the game.

If you are a huge fan of being a superhero and are willing to overlook all the issues with the game then good for you, but most people aren't willing to ignore all the broken parts. It also doesn't matter if many of those broken parts are fixed within a month, the damage will have been done. When people pay $50 for a game and then run into broken features and balance issues they get frustrated and quit. They don't want to wait and see if it all works out in the end because they have to pay to wait for it. And usually those same people won't come back once it is fixed because they're already fed up.

The truth is companies have to do smoother releases, sit in beta longer and let more bugs be found and fixed. When there are so many MMOs out that are running, free to download and then just the monthly fee, and don't have broken parts anymore, there is no point in playing the new broken MMO with little content.

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

Someone may have mentioned this already but it isn't really "viral anti-marketing" it is simply good old fashioned word of mouth. And in this case there are a lot of dissatisfied players so you're hearing a lot of negativity.

 

Look at the comments of people defending it, when someone's defense to a post of "Lots of broken missions" is "I've only run into 2 broken missions" well that's not really helping the game.

 

If you are a huge fan of being a superhero and are willing to overlook all the issues with the game then good for you, but most people aren't willing to ignore all the broken parts. It also doesn't matter if many of those broken parts are fixed within a month, the damage will have been done. When people pay $50 for a game and then run into broken features and balance issues they get frustrated and quit. They don't want to wait and see if it all works out in the end because they have to pay to wait for it. And usually those same people won't come back once it is fixed because they're already fed up.

 

The truth is companies have to do smoother releases, sit in beta longer and let more bugs be found and fixed. When there are so many MMOs out that are running, free to download and then just the monthly fee, and don't have broken parts anymore, there is no point in playing the new broken MMO with little content.

Problem is they could not Atari had set fixed deadline for the release, this is far different from Aion where NCsoft is publishing/dev the game or WAR where Mythic is owned by publisher EA which was flexible with its release date. IMO this was best time to release the game wait any longer and they to face up against Cataclysm and TOR. This gives them time to polish it up by summer 2010.

Underlying mechanics of this game is good unlike WAR or AoC so i do not see why people won't be willing to give Devs some time to fix things, but it comes down to how long.

I'd really like to see the massive bug report that some are complaining about.  Im at level 26 and havent ran across a bug yet....maybe I'm just stupid, but I don't think that's the case.

As for lack of content, every game I have played from it's beginning has lacked content to sufficiently and fluidly level to endgame.  WoW had gaps at every 10 levels and once you got to 50 it got even harder to go without grinding.  Silithus didn't even have content in it in those days.  LOTRO had a gap at about level 25 or 26 for me at least.  But by that time the quests, zones and mobs had gotten so repititious that I had given up on the game.  That and the fact that too much of the content required a group.  AO still requires massive grinding.  WAR seemed pretty fluid, but you had to go 40(?) levels killing the same mobs over and over and over again with quests fit for a FTP korean mmo.  Do I need to mention AoC? lol

Lack of content is not a "Launch problem" and it  is not a major issue if it's only about 3 levels worth that's missing, which from what I've read on the official CO boards (I'm at level 26), is what you'll face and that only tends to happen in the last 10 levels. 

As for a small world, I disagree...for a launch it's very big.  And the areas are sandbox style rather than linear pathed instances.  It pretty much makes me forget that the areas are zoned instances.

As for the areas all looking the same....I have to disagree again.  Yes, the desert still looks like a desert no matter where you go in the desert and yes Canada is still cold no mater which direction you go, but the inhabitants in each area are unique and their "stomping grounds" are completely different from each other.  For instance, in the desert you have the ghost town, the toxic waste site, the theme park and the prison....all very unique from each other.  Even a game like WOW didnt really do this.  Most of the towns in WOW had the same old copied houses from level 1 to level 60 (at launch).  There were unique zones, but no true uniqueness with the zones i.e. everything in said zone had a very similar feel.  So basically what CO did was make a desert and throw a ton of "mini-zones" into it....same with Canada, the city and I cant comment on Lumeria or Moster Island seeing as how I havent gotten to those locales yet.  So, in truth, Co has a reverse world compared to many other games.  Instead of 2000 zones, they built 5 zones and added several unique areas to each of them.

You take this and the fact that this is one of the most in-depth games as far as character creation and skill choice (probably since AO) and you have yourself a winner.  The only problem is that some people just dont like Superhero games, solo-friendly atmosphere, a challenge(now that they fixed difficulty) or cell-shading and you can't tell them their wrong...that's all opinion based.  What you do need to do is take an objective look at past launches and realize that CO did provide one the best launches in MMO history based on things that can be compared.

Either way, the game will be a success if alot of people play it, be a success if enough people play it and be a failure if not enough people play it and that's really the only true gauge of a games success. 

Originally posted by Darkheart00

Problem is they could not Atari had set fixed deadline for the release, this is far different from Aion where NCsoft is publishing/dev the game or WAR where Mythic is owned by publisher EA which was flexible with its release date. IMO this was best time to release the game wait any longer and they to face up against Cataclysm and TOR. This gives them time to polish it up by summer 2010.

Underlying mechanics of this game is good unlike WAR or AoC so i do not see why people won't be willing to give Devs some time to fix things, but it comes down to how long.

Me personally, will quit a game that is broken and never come back or one with too little content. Why? Because I just paid $50 bucks to have an unenjoyable experience and I'm angry.

Different people have different outlooks but for me a company should wait and release a game when it works and has enough to keep players busy, releasing earlier to be out before other big releases doesn't help you if your game doesn't work as it should. Then instead of losing people because of other big launches you lose people who don't want to play it and won't come back, plus by the time it's all working smoothly more games will have been released. Where as if they waited an extra 3 months they would of still been in before the big releases and would of had it polished. Unfortunatly for them you pick who you do business with, so if the company you picked is forcing you to release before it works, it is still your fault.

But I'm a person with little tolerance for such things and maybe it's not a big issue to other players. Once I write off a game though I never go back and try it again. If a game is functioning solidly but I get bored then I will go back again later to try again since the game was fun I had just run out of things to do, if the game was initially broken or so poorly done nothing was fun then I never try again (eg. WAR).

As far as CO is concerned I am just offering a view of how other players might be approaching this, and why there are so many negative posts about it. When you spend money and something isn't fun then you get pissed off. For me CO was never an interesting enough game to spend $50 on. But since I haven't gone in and experienced the broken yet I will be willing to try it once it's free.

That's basically become my philosophy on MMOs lately, wait for the game to become free and then try it out. You save money, the major issues are normally fixed and there's more content. And definetly never ever preorder.